[[quoteright:192:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/billy_joel_003_891.jpg]][[caption-width-right:192:Sing us a song tonight.]]

->''I am the entertainer\\And I know just where I stand.''-->--"The Entertainer"

William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and classical composer. He is the third-best-selling solo artist in the United States, with thirty-three top forty hits and six Grammy Awards to his name. As his 1973 breakout hit "Piano Man" implies, he is a quite skilled piano player, and many of his most famous songs have strong keyboard elements.

His discography has a wide range of styles, including schmaltzy soft-rock love songs that perhaps reveal TooMuchInformation about his relationships (especially that with ex-wife [[UptownGirl Christie Brinkley]]), tributes to 1950s artists and stylings, attempts at working class rock comparable to BruceSpringsteen, jazzy ruminations on fame, religion, substance abuse (something he has experience in), or his hometown of New York City, bluesy piano numbers, and pure classical compositions. Said range contributed to the formation of ''MovinOut'', one of the first and best known examples of the JukeboxMusical. He is also known for voicing Dodger in the Disney animated film ''Disney/OliverAndCompany''.

Joel has mostly retired from pop songwriting and recording, but he still tours occasionally, sometimes [[DreamTeam with close friend]] Music/EltonJohn. He is currently the "artist-in-residence" at Madison Square Garden.

References to his songs come up in pop culture quite a bit: among them a second season episode of ''Series/AmericanIdol'' had the contestants singing songs from his catalog, he's been the musical guest on four episodes of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', an entire episode of ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'' was dedicated to his music (and surprisingly, kept all of it for the DVD), and a classic ''Series/SesameStreet'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHC3M7KL2ns skit]] has him serenading Oscar the Grouch along with Marlee Matlin.

Not to be confused with [[Music/GreenDay Billie Joe]], [[Literature/OutOfTheDust Billie Jo]], or Music/BillyIdol.

!! Discography

!! As part of other bands* With The Hassles ** ''The Hassles'' (1967)** ''Hour of the Wolf'' (1969)* Attila, an early 1970s PsychedelicRock album, whose first and only album is often called [[BileFascination "one of the worst albums ever recorded"]]. ** ''Music/{{Attila}}'' (1970)

!!Classical Albums* ''Fantasies & Delusions'' (2001)----!!! "Sing us a trope, you're the piano man, sing us a trope tonight":* ACappella: "The Longest Time".* ApocalypseHow: "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)", seems to be an example of Class 0.* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: "We Didn't Start the Fire" is full of these. One example:--> ''Foreign debts, homeless vets,''--> ''AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz.''** And how, apparently, [[RantInducingSlight the thing that pushes him over the edge]] is "Rock and Roller Cola Wars".** In "You May Be Right" there was this bit:--> ''I was stranded in the combat zone,''--> ''I walked through Bedford Stuy alone,''--> ''Even rode my motorcycle in the rain.''* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The song "Don't Ask Me Why" inexplicably drops: "Parlez-vous français?" ("Do you speak French?") for no other reason than it rhymes with the word "away".---> Yesterday you were an only child---> Now your ghosts have gone away---> Oh, you can kill them in the classic style---> Now you parlez-vous français.* AudienceParticipationSong: Joel's performances of "Piano Man" these days tend to consist of him pointing the microphone at the crowd and letting them sing the entire song.* AuthorAvatar: Averted in "The Ballad of Billy the Kid." According to Joel, the Billy from Oyster Bay was a bartender named Billy he knew from his Long Island days.* AwardBaitSong: "The Ballad Of Billy The Kid" is made to sound like one of these. Joel had always wanted to write a movie theme song, but never got the offer.* BalladOfX: "The Ballad Of Billy The Kid".* BerserkButton: ** Infamously, "''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqY6mXULzpw STOP LIGHTING THE AUDIENCE!]]''" For context, this was during a show that he was playing behind the Iron Curtain in the former Soviet Union. During the show, the Secret Police used the lighting to pick out rowdy audience members, essentially making them afraid to show any hint of having fun. Quoth Billy later of the incident, "I didn't throw a tantrum, I threw a piano."** In a sense, his irritation with having been compared with fellow piano-based singer-songwriter (and future touring partner) Music/EltonJohn in TheSeventies may also count, as he felt he had his own sound and style, and record executives tried to push him towards an Elton-like sound early in his career. Early, unsuccessful attempts to record ''Turnstiles'' saw Columbia Records set him up to record with Elton's "classic" band (Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, and Nigel Olsson). [[{{Irony}} Then he did a concert with Elton in Yankee Stadium in 1989.]]* BigApplesauce: In addition to being from Long Island, his songs are sprinkled with geography references from New York City and the surrounding Tri-State Area metropolis.* BookEnds: The fade-out of "Where's the Orchestra?", the final song on ''The Nylon Curtain'', contains an instrumental snippet of the main melody of "Allentown", the album's first song.** Similarly, the ending of ''The Stranger'' is entitled "Everybody Has A Dream/The Stranger (Reprise)" because that song ends with a repeat of the opening strains of "The Stranger".* BreakupBreakout: From a '60s rock group called The Hassles. The biggest thing anyone else in that group did was the song "Black Betty".* BrieferThanTheyThink: Joel has been in the music business for over 40 years, yet has produced only 12 studio albums as a solo artist.* BrutalHonesty[=/=]TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "Big Shot", "Pressure" and "Everybody Loves You Now".* ByTheEyesOfTheBlind: Referenced word-for-word in "River of Dreams".* CallAndResponseSong: "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me."* CallingYourAttacks: In the song "A Room of Our Own" off ''The Nylon Curtain'', following the second chorus, Billy calls out "Bridge!" just before the bridge begins.* TheCameo: ** RodneyDangerfield appears in the "Tell Her About It" video.** RichardPryor, Joe Piscopo and Christie Brinkley make appearances in the video for "Keeping the Faith." Christie also cameos in "Uptown Girl."* CatholicSchoolgirlsRule: "Only The Good Die Young".* ChildrenAreInnocent: "Leningrad". The general meaning is that ''all'' children are innocent, and all of them feel pain from conflict, no matter which side they're on. * ConceptAlbum: ''An Innocent Man'' consists [[{{Retraux}} entirely of pastiches]] of the music Joel grew up listening to. The most notable singles are the Ben E. King-flavored title track, Music/FrankieValliAndTheFourSeasons-esque "Uptown Girl", the Marley-influenced "Keeping The Faith", the Motown-style "Tell Her About It", and the a cappella doo-wop "For The Longest Time".* DarkerAndEdgier: Both ''Glass Houses'' and especially ''The Nylon Curtain'' are this compared to Joel's other albums. ''Storm Front'' and especially ''River Of Dreams'' are this compared to ''An Innocent Man'' and ''The Bridge''. It didn't help that [[CreatorBreakdown Joel's financial issues and eventual divorce from Christie Brinkley]] happened during this time period, and it's reflected in many of the songs from this time.* ADateWithRosiePalms: ** One popular interpretation of "Captain Jack," though it's explicitly about being TheStoner. Being bored and masturbating is mentioned in the song, though.** "Sometimes a Fantasy", however, is not only a song about ''phone sex'', but Joel even makes [[TheImmodestOrgasm Immodest Orgasms]]. (The music video is {{squick}}ier.)* DeadAir: Billy Joel invoked a live-performance version of this trope during the 1994 Grammy Award Show. The director of the show cut short Frank Sinatra's acceptance speech for receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, and this pissed Joel off to the point that he stopped his performance of "The River of Dreams" in the middle. He sat there, grinning at the audience, while pretending to check his watch, and quipped, "Valuable advertising time is passing by." After wasting around 30 seconds, he resumed playing the song.** In concert, he still tends to extend the middle of the song (which had a natural pause in the first place) as a reminder of the stunt.* DeadpanSnarker: Billy is this in ''many'' songs.** That side of him comes out in recent live performances, and in spades during his songwriting seminars, if the Q+A videos posted on his website are any indication. Also comes with a fair amount of SelfDeprecation.* DoNotCallMePaul: Billy is ''not'' fond of being called "William,"[[note]]Even though the [[Series/TheEdSullivanShow Ed Sullivan]] character in the video for "Tell Her About It" does that after his performance[[/note]] and actually prefers "Bill" to "Billy".* {{Documentary}}: ** ''Last Play at Shea'', which used his July 16th and 18th, 2008 concerts at [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams the New York Mets' Shea Stadium]], the last ones ever performed there before the building was demolished, as a launchpad for covering his career, the history of American suburbia on Long Island and of the Mets.** There are also ''The Bridge to Russia'' and ''A Matter of Trust'', both TV documentaries about his historic tour in the USSR, released decades apart.* DyingTown: "Allentown".* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: His short-lived heavy metal band Attila and their one self-titled album from 1970. Often listed as one of the worst LP's of all time and disowned by Joel.* EchoingAcoustics: ** "Miami 2017 (Seen the Light Go Out on Broadway)" has a weird reverb effect added to it.** As he mentions in his live album ''Songs in the Attic'', the song "demands the gothic reverberation of a vast railroad terminus, such as Madison Square Garden." Apparently this is what they were aiming for on the original, and landed in the aural UncannyValley instead.* EpicRocking: "Goodnight Saigon" (7:04), "Captain Jack" (7:15), and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" (7:37), which feature an opening of helicopters, a building crescendo, and an interlude across three distinct sections, respectively.** The "Prelude" section of "Angry Young Man" is about two minutes going back and forth between five different tempos, including some of the fastest piano-playing you've ever heard.** {{Lampshaded}} in "The Entertainer" when he complains "It was a beautiful song / But it ran too long / So they cut it down to 3:05".* TheEveryman: According to Joel, "Anthony's Song" (or "Movin' Out) is not about someone named Anthony; the name is supposed to represent "every Irish, Polish, and Italian kid trying to make a living in the U.S."* FakeOutFadeOut: "You Picked a Real Bad Time"* FamousLastWords: "Famous Last Words". Bonus points for being the last song on his last album that had lyrics (he did release an instrumental album a few years later)* FlippingTheTable: Joel does this at the end of the climactic verse in "We Didn't Start The Fire".* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: More like past the censors. Somehow rear male nudity got past the MTV censors for "Allentown".* HeavyMeta: "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me", "The Entertainer"* {{Genre Bust|ing}}er: ** If you had to classify it, you'd probably call it "piano-based rock and roll," but Joel's music has an extremely wide range of styles.** GenreRoulette: He's gone from pop to Southwestern funk to soul to Music/AaronCopland-like ballads to a ''classical music'' album. He even emulated Music/TheBeatles in the B side of the ''Nylon Curtain'' album. He also stated that "We Didn't Start the Fire" was going to be a ''rap'' song, but thought better against it. ** The "Prelude" to "Angry Young Man" veers around ''several'' music styles before heading into the main song.* GlassShatteringSound: He hit a lot of very high notes on ''An Innocent Man'', recorded when he was arguably at the peak of his vocal powers. He later explained that he felt he'd never be able to get that high again, so he decided to go all out on this album. Indeed, by his next album, ''The Bridge'', his voice was noticeably deeper.** Of course there is also a [[ComicallyMissingThePoint literal one of these]] to begin the album ''Glass Houses''.* GratuitousFrench: "C'Etait Toi" has an entire section sung only in French.* GreatestHitsAlbum: Several. The first, a two-disc set titled ''Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II'' and originally released in 1985, has been certified at the 23x Platinum level.* {{Homage}}: All the songs on ''An Innocent Man'' are InTheStyleOf songs from the '50s and '60s. "Uptown Girl" was Frankie Valli, "For The Longest Time" was a quickened doo-wop style, and "An Innocent Man" was Ben E. King and the Drifters.* IWantSong: "Easy Money".* IdenticalStranger: Bore a surprising resemblance to [[http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljco2etrQE1qe4mcd.png Lou]] [[http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljco1sveuA1qe4mcd.png Reed]] in TheSeventies. * IntercourseWithYou: ** "Only the Good Die Young", though {{subverted|Trope}} - the singer fails to seduce Virginia.** "Sometimes a Fantasy", over the ''phone''* JustTheWayYouAre: {{Trope Namer|s}}* KarmaHoudini: "Surprises". Joel tells the listener not to worry - whatever horrible thing they just did (which is [[NoodleIncident never revealed]]) won't be a problem, with the help of a little destruction of the evidence.* LetsDuet: Music/CyndiLauper in "Code of Silence", Music/RayCharles in "Baby Grand".* LifeOfTheParty: "Big Shot" is based on the darker version of this trope.* LighterAndSofter: ''An Innocent Man'' compared to the two albums that preceded it.* ListSong: "We Didn't Start The Fire"* LonelyAtTheTop: ''Everybody Loves You Now."-->''Oh loneliness will get to you somehow''\\''but everybody loves you now'' * LonelyTogether: "Piano Man" provides that page's quote.* LyricalDissonance: Extremely frequent. Notable examples include "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)", "You're Only Human (Second Wind)", "The Entertainer", and "Allentown".* {{Manipulative B|astard}}itch: "Laura" (with a healthy dollop of PassiveAggressiveKombat) and "She's Always a Woman". "Stiletto" is the rare case in which the protagonist knows she's one, but enjoys it. WordOfGod said it was about any female performer who has the audience in their hands.* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Rarely (if ever) goes beyond 4. ''We Didn't Start the Fire'' would be one of the few songs bordering on a 5, with its fast guitar-, bass- and drums-driven instrumental backdrop, rapid-fire lyric delivery and some harsher vocals just before every chorus. Joel himself described the song as a "novelty song" though.* MoneySong: "Easy Money", from the Creator/RodneyDangerfield [[Film/EasyMoney movie of the same name]].* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Played with in "Surprises".* NonAppearingTitle: "Summer Highland Falls," "Goodnight Saigon," "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," "Travelin' Prayer." "Famous Last Words" is close, as the line is "These are the last words I have to say" (which was true, as it was the last song on his last studio album that ''had'' lyrics.)* NostalgiaFilter: ** The entire reason behind "We Didn't Start the Fire". According to Joel, he was tired of younger people talking about how what a mess the present was, and how idyllic it was in the 50's and 60's, and his having to mention, "Well, this happened and that happened..."** Averted in "The Great Suburban Showdown", in which he points out the mild hypocrisy of family reunions, and how some family members desperately cling to the past.* NotSoDifferent: "Leningrad", where he details his friendship between himself and a Russian clown he met while touring the Soviet Union. (The song was written during the Cold War.)* ObsessionSong: "All For Leyna". The narrator has a one night stand with the eponymous woman, and declares: -->''I don't wanna eat, I don't wanna sleep, I only want Leyna one more time''.* OddCouple: Joel and his former wife Christie Brinkley* PowerOfTrust: "Honesty" is practically the musical TropeCodifier.* PrecisionFStrike: Billy swears quite a bit in interviews and concerts, but his songwriting is mostly clean. An exception is "Laura" from the album ''The Nylon Curtain'', the only song in Joel's entire oeuvre to contain an F-bomb.* RealSongThemeTune: "My Life" for ''Series/BosomBuddies'' and "You May Be Right" for ''Dave's World''* ReallyGetsAround: "The Entertainer" mentions this:-->''I am the entertainer, I've been all around the world.-->''I've played all kinds of palaces and laid all kinds of girls.* [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "The Reason You Suck" Song]]: A few, but highlighted by "Big Shot".* RefrainFromAssuming: ** It's "River of Dreams" not "In The Middle Of The Night".** "Anthony's Song", not "Movin' Out".** Similarly, it's "Summer, Highland Falls" not "Sadness or Euphoria".** "Goodnight Saigon" is not called "We Will All Go Down Together".** Several of his songs have subtitles by which they're more commonly known. "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Down on Broadway)" are the most famous.* RenaissanceMan: Well, only in a musical sense, but Billy Joel's songs do span a wide range of genres and sounds.* RockMeAmadeus: "This Night" is based on the second movement of Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's "Pathetique". Makes sense, since he has cited Beethoven as one of his biggest influences.* RockStarSong: "The Entertainer", "Everybody Loves You Now".* SadClown: During a live performance in 2008 of "She's Always A Woman", a man in the audience proposed to his girlfriend. Billy noticed this and congratulated the couple, before jokingly adding [[SelfDeprecation "Get a prenup!"]]. At the time, Billy's own marriage was starting to fall apart and he realised that, in a stadium full of people, he was the only one not laughing at the joke.* SelfBackingVocalist: "The Longest Time", "Through the Long Night", "Until the Night".* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: ''Pressure''. -->All your life is Channel 13, Series/SesameStreet-->What does it mean?* SingleStanzaSong: "Souvenir".* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Nearly all of his songs are on the cynicism side ("Pressure" being the most cynical), which makes his idealistic songs, such as "New York State of Mind" and "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant", stand out.* SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein: "We Didn't Start The Fire," which has often been accused of being a rip-off of the {{Trope Namer|s}}, Music/{{REM}}'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," as a result.[[note]]Of course, since "We Didn't Start The Fire" started life as a ''rap song'', it's highly doubtful Joel was copying R.E.M.[[/note]]* TheSomethingSong: "Weekend Song"* TheStoner: "Captain Jack", perhaps the most accurate deconstruction of the life of a college stoner.* StopAndGo: "River of Dreams"* AStormIsComing: The opening line of the chorus to "Storm Front" is "There's a storm front coming".* SurrealMusicVideo: "Pressure", an early example from 1982 directed by RussellMulcahy.* TakeThat: ** Before he played a concert in St. Louis on the Stranger tour, Billy received a death threat from a Catholic group regarding the content of the song "Only The Good Die Young." He responded by playing it five times that night.** "Getting Closer" from ''The Bridge'' is one to his first manager Artie Ripp. "The Great Wall Of China" from ''River Of Dreams'' is one to Frank Weber, his ex-brother in law who replaced Ripp as his manager. Both were caught swindling Billy of his money at various times in his career.** "Big Shot", but Joel refuses to say just ''who'' the song is about. There are popular theories, however.* TakeThatCritics: ** Early in his career, Billy had a habit of tearing up newspapers that had given him bad reviews during his live concerts.** Billy [[http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/entertainment/more-entertainment-stories/572960 called out]] a critic who had been polite when they met, yet went on to bash the artist's work in his article, believing it would not actually be read by Joel. Billy still invited the critic to attend his show, yet suggested he wear a hockey mask for his own protection.** "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" takes a jab at how music critics try to tell people who's worth listening to: "There's a new band in town, but you can't get the sound from a story in a magazine aimed at your average teen." Soon afterwards, a Rolling Stone poll voted it "the worst song about rock and roll ever."** The very album title "Glass Houses" is a Take That, Critics! title. Note Billy is ready to hurl that first stone at the glass house.* TemptingFate: In "Modern Woman", the protagonist asks, "And after 1986, what else could be new?" three years before the start of TheGreatPoliticsMessUp. Then Billy penned "We Didn't Start the Fire" which, by his own description, was pretty much a chronicle of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar (and included the line, "What else do I have to say?", albeit not meant literally). The imminent political upheavals in 1989 made Billy want to hurry up and release ''Storm Front'' ASAP.* ThatsAllFolks: River of Dreams.* TitleOnlyChorus: '''PRESSURE'''* TitleThemeTune: ''Film/EasyMoney''.* TrashTheSet: At the end of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4lh4Ahl46E "She's Right On Time" video.]]* {{Tuckerization}}: "The Downeaster Alexa", featuring a sailboat named after his daughter.* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)", recorded in 1976.* UglyGuyHotWife: A mild example, but during his marriage with Christie Brinkley, he was somewhat self conscious about being married to a beautiful supermodel and wondered why she would be interested in someone like him.* UptownGirl: {{Trope Namer|s}}. The song was a tribute to his then wife, Christie Brinkley.* VocalEvolution: An enforced one: his performance at The Concert For New York City, which he did against doctor's orders, caused a blood vesicle to burst in his throat which drastically deepened his voice and forced him to transpose all of his songs a half-step lower to accommodate this.* WeDidntStartTheBillyJoelParodies: A list of the innumerable parodies of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire".* WhatYouAreInTheDark: "The Stranger"* WideEyedIdealist: The lyrics of "Pressure" are addressed to this kind of person.--> ''I'm sure you have some cosmic rationale. But here you are with your faith and your PeterPan advice. You have no scars on your face and you cannot handle [[TitleDrop pressure]].''* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" is possibly the musical TropeCodifier.* YourCheatingHeart[=/=]StrangerBehindTheMask: "The Stranger"----

--> ''And these are the last words I have to say.\\It's always hard to say goodbye.\\But now it's time to put this book away.\\Ain't that the story of my life?''-->-- "'''Famous Last Words'''", ''River of Dreams'', 1993